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Dunmari Frontier - Session 88

The Battle for Uzgukhar: in which Grash is defeated and the Ring of Undying is destroyed

Featuring: Seeker, Delwath, Kenzo, Wellby, Riswynn
In Taelgar: Jan 17, 1749 DR to Jan 20, 1749 DR
On Earth: Tuesday Nov 21, 2023
Uzgukhar

TheDunmar Fellowship destroys a trebuchet, defeats Grash, and ends the undead siege on Uzgukhar, with Wellby being killed and resurrected.

Session Info

Summary

Timeline

Narrative

We begin on Vindristjarna, racing towards Uzgukhar. The party uses the few days of travel to learn what they can about Grash, and the Ring of Undying, from the various stories collected by Kenzo and the maps and lore and halfling memories maintained by Wellby.

Arriving a few hours after sunrise on January 20, 1748, the bombardment of Uzgukhar has already begun. A massive trebuchet, at least 300 feet tall, stands on the battlefield, capable of slinging rocks big enough to crush walls and houses, from more than 1000 feet from the city. Lines of Undead, mostly orc zombies, pull on massive ropes to winch up the counterweight for another blast. It is clear that the city cannot survive a full day of this. Arrayed around the city in siege lines are many more Undead, supported by swarms of specters and shades swooping overhead. In trenches, shadow dogs wait for nightfall, when they can run through the city unchecked.

The party quickly leaps into action. Seeker creates a massive boulder, ten feet on a side, as Vindristjarna rises to 300 feet above the battlefield. Even as shades and specters rush to intercept the ship, the boulder (decorated to look like a ladder) launches itself from the deck. Never before has a boulder fallen so precisely from such a great height. With a mighty crack, the flying boulder-ladder hits the center of the long arm of the trebuchet directly, splintering into hundreds of pieces and utterly destroying the siege machine and itself in the process. Later, Seeker will build a memorial to the short-lived hero: “Lord Boulder, hero of the Battle for Uzgukhar smasher of the trebuchet, liberator of the missile stones, star among rocks”.

Battle for Uzgukhar

With the trebuchet destroyed, the party fights off a group of shades and specters, and turns to find Grash. He is standing, watching the battle, seemingly unconcerned with the arrival of a flying skyship, and is ready, waiting, for the party.

While Seeker hides on the deck of Vindristjarna slinging spells from a distance, the rest of the party engages. Grash fights viciously with his wicked glaive, every slash leaving a bleeding wound that makes movement painful, and his cloak of shadows protecting him and retaliating when cut or pierced. With the Ring of Undying, he summons cursed chains that bind the arms of his enemies, weakening them and binding them closer to death. The party fights back with Delwath’s sword, Wellby’s bow, Kenzo’s fists, Riswynn’s divine sunbeam, and Seeker’s incapacitating lance of psychic energy. Grash stumbles, but cannot die: when it seems he might die, the ring draws the life force of those around him to restore him to life again.

As the battle progresses, and Grash slows, finally there is an opening to cut off his hand and take, and destroy, the Ring of Undying. Wounded and close to unconsciousness, and bound in place by shadowy claws summoned by Grash, Kenzo, who has channeled Motua and dodged Grash’s glaive the whole battle, summons the claws of Lengau, and slashes as Grash’s wrist, severing his hand. With an off-balance throw, he tosses the hand to Wellby, who barely grabs it, as the shadow claws slash at Kenzo, dragging him to unconsciousness. Wellby, the Ring of Undying in hand, takes out a vial of Universal Solvent, and uses the last drop to dissolve the binds of the Land of the Dead that are wrapped around the ring, disintegrating it and unleashing a burst of necrotic energy that knocks Wellby unconscious. Grash, overcome with rage, shadow steps to Wellby, who is standing on a stone arch above the desert, and strikes him, once, twice with his glaive, and then pushed him to the ground below, dead. Delwath, seeing the ring destroyed, teleports to Grash and then, with a cut of his sword, kills him.

The party retreats to Vindristjarna as the Undead hordes begin to waver, and fall, every zombie, shade, or skeleton brought back by the power of the ring now unmade and returned to death. Riswynn prays to the Bahrazel, channeling her magic through a perfect diamond, which sparkles and shatters with images of Wellby: a map, a compass, a ship on the open ocean searching for distant lands. As the spell completes, Wellby is brought back to life, shaken.

For the rest of the day, the party helps the orcs of Uzgukhar destroy the few Undead and other creatures left in Grash’s armies, as Xurkhaz is saved and the Cloak of Rainbows protected.

We end that evening, as the celebrations of survival and mourning for the dead last long into the night in Uzgukhar, as the party hears stories of the People of the Rainbow from Murook, Lubash, and Azogar, among many others.